The biggest problem in the world is distribution, and here’s a solution for a case that can save millions of life. People of the world: you can help! (This video is based on a passage from a diary I kept when I was about 8 years old. Though that’s more than a decade ago, it seems relevant now…)

Hi, this is Ina Centaur, and here’s my answer to the Davos Question—what one thing I think everyone can help in doing to make the world a better place:

I think the biggest problem that can be solved without the invention and deployment of new technologies—or similar complications—is distribution. I’m talking about distribution with respect to global problems like world hunger and general ignorance—and I think the two are related.

What do I mean, well—take the fact that the USA produces way more food than its people need. This food often goes to waste—and often due to reasons of business, for example, due to unfavorable rates, a farming company not wishing to hire the workers to harvest. You have food that can feed entire third world countries just rotting away unharvested. There’s a lot of activism going on with people running marathons in Relay for Life and other global concerns. What if, people could volunteer to harvest the food for the starving people of the world?

I really think the culprit is ignorance. We have all that we need to save millions of lives and perhaps even eliminate the third world. But, the situation in the example I just gave is that people who live a short drive away from the farm skipping its harvest don’t know that they can just go out and help.
But, perhaps, there might be business reasons why the farming company would reject even free help. Could they perhaps get tax deductability for donating the food harvested by the volunteer labor?

It really is a huge pity that the food just goes to waste like that. And it shouldn’t. I mean, we have the resources, the people, and the spirit and heart to make it work.
Like, people from all around the country or world could flock to these farming sites to help harvest. For example, major conferences such as SxSW and others could be held near these farming sites, so that people could attend conferences and also help harvest to save the hungry people of the world—while minimizing their airfare.

There would always be new farms to hold the conventions at. The biggest problem is distribution. We already have all the food in the world to solve world hunger. We just need to be able to get it out there. And there’s people to help. We just need to make it possible.

Written by ina on Tuesday, 8 of January , 2008 at 10:06 pm Tags: ditz, hermitry, YoS

A 25-year old American polymath of Taiwanese ancestry pretending to be old and Caucasian in Second Life. Semi-retired independent scholar also dabbling as an independent artist in new media, particularly theatre and the humanities—notably Shakespeare. Programmer, playwright and novelist. Formal academic background in http://portfolio.inacentaur.com/ina/scientist, philosophy, and bioengineering.

This is largely a personal blog which isn't always up-to-date. There's no one definitive way to stalk me ;-).